PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

R Suswillo

Publications and source records attributed to R Suswillo.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

The adaptive response of bone to mechanical loading in female transgenic mice is deficient in the absence of oestrogen receptor-alpha and -beta.

Postmenopausal osteoporosis represents a failure of the response by which bone cells adapt bone mass and architecture to be sufficiently strong to withstand loading without fracture. To address why this failure should be associated with oestrogen withdrawal, we investigated the ulna's adaptive response to mechanical loading in adult female mice lacking oestrogen receptor-alpha (ERalpha(-/-)), those lacking oestrogen receptor-beta (ERbeta(-/-)) and their wild-type littermates. In wild-type mice, short periods of physiologic cyclic compressive loading of the ulna in vivo over a 2-week period stimulates new bone formation. In ERalpha(-/-) and ERbeta(-/-) mice this osteogenic response was respectively threefold and twofold less (P<0.05). In vitro, primary cultures of osteoblast-like cells derived from these mice were subjected to a single short period of mechanical strain. Twenty-four hours after strain the number of wild-type cells was 61+/-25% higher than in unstrained controls (P<0.05), whereas in ERalpha(-/-) cells there was no strain-related increase in cell number. However, the strain-related response of ERalpha(-/-) cells could be partially rescued by transfection with functional human ERalpha (P<0.05). ERbeta(-/-) cells showed a 125+/-40% increase in cell number following strain. This was significantly greater than in wild types (P<0.05).These data support previous findings that functional ERalpha is required for the full osteogenic response to mechanical loading and particularly the stage of this response, which involves an increase in osteoblast number. ERbeta appears to depress the ERalpha-mediated strain-related increase in osteoblast number in vitro, but in female transgenic mice in vivo the constitutive absence of either ERalpha or ERbeta appears to diminish the osteogenic response to loading.

Adaptation, Physiological↗

Cellular responses to mechanical loading in vitro.

A technique has been established in which cancellous bone biopsies may be simultaneously perfused and subjected to mechanical load bearing. Assessments of cell viability over a period of 24 h were based on the cAMP response to parathyroid hormone, intracellular lactate dehydrogenase activity, and electron micrograph morphology. Two cellular responses to mechanical loading were demonstrated similar to those that follow "osteogenic" loading in vivo, as reported previously. These were (1) a rise in intracellular G6PD in lining cells immediately after loading, and (2) an increase in RNA synthesis measured in osteocytes 6 h after loading. In vivo the osteogenic response to loading was modulated by indomethacin. In these in vitro experiments, addition of indomethacin inhibited both the loading-related G6PD and the RNA responses.

Animals↗

Load-induced proteoglycan orientation in bone tissue in vivo and in vitro.

Previous studies of Alcian blue-induced birefringence in adult avian cortical bone showed that a short period of intermittent loading rapidly produces an increased level of orientation of proteoglycans within the bone tissue. In the absence of further loading, this persists for over 24 hours. We have proposed that this phenomenon could provide a means for "capturing" the effects of transient strains, and so provide a persistent, constantly updated strain-related influence on osteocyte populations related to the bones' averaged recent strain history, in effect, a "strain memory" in bone tissue. In our present study, we use the Alcian blue-induced birefringence technique to demonstrate that proteoglycan orientation also occurs after intermittent loading of both cortical and cancellous mammalian bone in vivo and in vitro. We also show that the change in birefringence is proportional to the magnitude of the applied strain, and that the reorientation occurs rapidly, reaching a maximal value after only 50 loading cycles. Examination of electron micrographs of bone tissue after staining with cupromeronic blue allows direct visualization and quantification of the change in proteoglycan orientation produced by loading. This shows that intermittent loading is associated with a realignment of the proteoglycan protein cores, bringing them some 5 degrees closer to the direction of collagen fibrils in the bone matrix.

Alcian Blue↗

Increased 3H-uridine levels in osteocytes following a single short period of dynamic bone loading in vivo.

Both ulnas of skeletally mature roosters (Gallus domesticus) were deprived of functional load bearing by proximal and distal submetaphyseal osteotomies. Twenty-four hours later the animals were injected with 1.5 mCi of 3H-uridine and the ulna on one side was subjected to a single period of a cyclical load engendering physiological strain levels at 1 Hz for 6 min. Twenty-four hours after loading the animals were killed. Autoradiographic examination of comparable regions of cortex in sections from the bone's midshafts showed that in the loaded bones, 72 +/- 2.7% of osteocytes were labeled compared with 12 +/- 3.5% in the corresponding areas of their contralateral nonloaded pair (P less than 0.001). The number of grains per labeled osteocyte was also higher in the loaded side (6 +/- 0.5 compared with 4 +/- 0.5, P less than 0.01). There was no obvious correlation between the longitudinal strain distribution during artificial loading and the distribution of labeled osteocytes throughout the bone cross-section. However, previous long-term experiments using a similar loading preparation had consistently shown the site of most periosteal new bone formation to also not be directly related to the local strain magnitude. Perhaps it is significant that the greatest percentage of labeled cells were found in the cortex where the long-term experiments had shown most new bone formation to subsequently occur.

Animals↗

Expression of cross-reactive surface antigens by microfilariae and adult worms of Brugia pahangi during infections in cats.

Microfilariae of Brugia pahangi were labelled with 125-Iodine using the reagent IODOGEN. Electron microscope autoradiographs of sections of iodinated microfilariae showed that the label was strictly confined to their sheath. Adult worms were also iodinated by the same procedure. Sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) analysis of detergent extracts of radio-labelled parasites revealed components of molecular weights 113, 81-71, 46 and 33 kDa in microfilariae, and of molecular weights 29, 20 and 16 kDa in adult worms. All but the 33 kDa component of microfilariae were immunoprecipitable with sera of infected cats and therefore antigenic. Antibodies to the 81-71 kDa and the 46 kDa microfilarial antigens were detected by immunoprecipitation before patency. Similarly, the 29 kDa antigen of adult worms was immunoprecipitable before the fourth moult. Therefore, during infection in cats, these antigens cross-react with epitopes present on earlier developmental stages.

Animals↗